CAVE!

I’m pretty sure I already did one of these in 2016, but here is another because CONTEST!

My card cave is more of an everything cave. I collect a lot of different things, so in addition to being a closet/storage room, this is my media room, computer center, office, poster repository, memorabilia emporium, and, of course, card cave. Most importantly it is my nerd sanctuary.

This is my desk, where the magic happens. I'm in the middle of making the switch from PC to Mac, so I'm doing a lot of data consolidation and transfer. It's taking a long time (and eating into my card collecting time and budget), so I'm making this post while waiting for transfers to finish.

Above the desk is cardboard storage. The orange-labeled longboxes are trade fodder separated by team.

Below that is my storage media shelf with a few display cards to boot. The Bonds rookie is there because I have no idea where to put it.

Beside that is everything else I need for blogging, trading, and collecting in general. Highlights are a postal scale, my original 1996 Beckett Griffey Tribute magazine for checking off new additions, and an envelope containing every note everyone has ever included with a trade package. I'm kind of an orderly hoarder.

I’m in here a lot because as you can see this is where the computer is. The reason I stick with laptops now is obvious if you’ve ever had to evacuate you home with a desktop computer. That computer is a media server streaming 1.5 terabytes of content to the rest of the house. 600GB of that is BBC, PBS, and National Geographic nature documentaries. 147GB is just Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Soon the Mac will be where the PC is, and the PC will be only a download machine and media server. I may use it from time to time for burning CD's and such, but the end goal is to be mostly Mac by Mardi Gras (which is at the end of February!).

Here is my scanner, which is relatively new as my old one had simply had enough of my wife fiddling with it. This one is totally wireless, but nearly every scan comes out crooked, so it's a trade-off.

To the left of the desk is this little old-school (a term I’ve never gotten to use literally until now) desk that never doesn’t have cardboard on it. Here you can see I have some new PC adds, a new silly names (mostly Dicks), a stack of Richie Allen cards, and some boxes I use in my sorting. This small desk is my main sorting area, and the cubby beneath is ideal for storing small card boxes. Harold Reynolds’ head supervises from his suction cup.

The card cabinet is the heart and soul of the card cave. It contains the better part of my Griffey card collection minus anything worth more than a few bucks. The real stuff (a solid quarter of my collection) resides in a big safe deposit box at the bank in longboxes sealed in large air and watertight bags with desiccant packs. The Griffeys are arranged by year and brand in binders. Below that are my Griffey duplicates, off-size Griffeys, and non-Griffey keepers. No one card in this cabinet is worth more than ten bucks at most. Because I run a public blog about my Griffey collection, I’m very careful about what cards I keep at home.

Next door to that is my next biggest collection: posters and prints. I have roughly 500 posters, some framed, most not. Those unframed prints live in these large boxes or giant portfolios. Poster collecting is not a great hobby to have if you don’t have a lot of space or if you like money. One of my favorite artists, Daniel Danger, made that blue paper lamp. I don’t have proof, but I think I have the largest Daniel Danger collection in Louisiana.

When I converted this room from a guest bedroom to my nerd sanctuary I removed the closet doors completely and added a storage shelf. There’s very little fun stuff in here – it is mostly storage with a few surprises hidden here and there. Above the closet are a few signed setlists from They Might Be Giants, The Rentals, Galactic, and an autographed gig poster for one of my musical heroes, Brian Wilson (who I'm seeing in March!).

Left of that is one of my favorite walls in the house. It’s got my Jeff Soto Dune Poster, my Snoop Dogg on hemp paper, and a bunch of different autographs from various Saints as well as jazz legend Herbie Hancock. I drew over a few items here because there are some things YOU CANNOT SEE.

The bookshelves are where I keep all my go-to collection stuff and display items.

The middle shelf is the not-very-valuable part of my coin collection which I hope to get my son to help me curate when he gets old enough to not eat the pennies. Below that is where I keep my "collector" vinyl, that being the stuff that doesn't get played because it's worth actual money.

This shelf may interest my specific audience more. Its where I keep large quantities of cards I don't intend on keeping, all broken down by set. If shipping was cheaper, none of these cards would be here. You'd probably have some of them right now.

This middle bookshelf is 80% baseball cards. We have the Griffey collectibles shelf up top followed by my media shelf (hooked up to the TV up top) complete with a VCR hooked up to a DVDR for VHS-dubbing. Under that are my Griffey magazines and a bunch of complete sets in binders, then a lot of miscellaneous baseball card stuff, and at the bottom a whole bunch of complete sets and my '89 Donruss boxes.

These shelves used to be completely full of DVDs, but I recently completed a project where I sorted most of the discs into disc binders and put all the DVD cases into a giant storage bin in the attic. I have not yet decided what to do with the newfound shelf space, but the whole space is less cluttered already.

On top of this bookshelf is my MST3K prop collection, the original Sports Illustrated football phone, and my Christmas Story leg lamp. One entire shelf of that CD collection on the left is Radiohead. Another is They Might Be Giants. I am a big nerd.

So, this was my card cave at its best. I write that in the past tense because if we ever have another kid (and we plan to someday), this will become my son's room, and I'll have to find a place for all this crap. God help me.

The Best Griffey Acquisitions of 2016 Part 1: #21-30

I went into 2016 expecting two things to happen: First, I thought that, despite becoming a new Dad, I would still have plenty of time to blog. I mean, the boy’s gotta sleep sometime, right?

I was wrong. I mean, he slept - a lot - but that’s when I slept, too. Hence, I was usually snoozing in what I thought would be my blogging time, and my post count suffered. As some of you may know I’ve all but dropped off the face of the Earth in that respect.

The other expectation was that it would be a very lean year when it comes to new Griffeys. I thought I’d be whittling the Top Acquisitions list back down to ten and that maybe a new autograph or two would top the list, and that would be it.

Again, I was wrong. The collection actually made some pretty respectable gains this year with the help of a couple of Griffey collecting social media groups, Griffey’s return to the spotlight via his Hall of Fame induction (and plenty of attention from Topps as a result), and a sharper focus on completing the 1996 Beckett Tribute checklist. Oh, and I went a little autograph-crazy as you will see.

So, while this year can in no way compete with the monster year the collection had in 2015, it was still pretty remarkable despite the low blogging activity. That sums up 2016 for me: still Griffeying, just not writing about it.

A reminder: last year I began grouping like cards together rather than rank each one individually, and I did it again this year where it made sense. One of my focuses was the parallel-heavy 1996 Beckett Tribute checklist not to mention all the great Griffey-centric inserts that Topps gave us. As a result, this Top 30 list has way more than 30 cards on it. That escalated quickly.

Here goes:

30. 2016 Topps Finest Careers Die-Cut Set #1-10

As a Griffey fan I am all about Topps’ Griffey-centric inserts for 2016. At one card per case, the 10-card Finest Careers insert was not an easy pull. I even bought a box of Finest (so unlike me) when they came out in the hopes of pulling one (which I didn’t), but over the months I was able to piece the checklist together as the prices cooled off and people started listing them for reasonable amounts. I really love the fun modern font and die-cut design – it’s a Finest insert through-and-through. Well done.

29. ‘90’s Stadium Club First Day Issues

You are going to see a lot of ‘90’s parallels on this list since I’ve been hard at work trying to complete the 1996 Beckett Tribute checklist. I’ll admit it: this is a boring parallel by most standards. It’s also pretty scarce which is how it ended up here. It’s nice to see First Day Issue and Stadium Club in general are both back and great as ever, but I do miss these holofoil stamps.

28. Late ‘90’s Ultra Inserts & Gold Medallions

Ultra from this era is quite a hurdle. They got pretty hardcore in the late 90’s with a ton of tough-pull inserts and the significant beefing-up of their Gold Medallion parallel. Combine both of these (which is precisely what Ultra did) and you have tough inserts made tougher by a super-tough insert parallel. So for player collectors in the ‘90’s, things were, well, tough, and they remain so for ‘90’s PCers such as myself. Despite many months of active searching, there are still several I need to finish the Beckett Tribute checklist.

27. Collector’s Choice Gold Signatures

Look at all these gold signatures! My cousin and I busted a ton of packs of this product in our day, and in all that time I pulled only one gold signature (Gregg Jefferies). To us, Gold Signatures were a legendary parallel, and I never thought I would have this many. I like to think that were he still around, even so many years separated from the hobby, he would appreciate this little stack of one of our all-time favorite parallels.

Sorry to get a little sad on you there – to make up for it, here is some ink:

26. 2004 Upper Deck Diamond Prosigs Collection Autograph #204

This is the lowest-ranked an autograph has ever been in the 4-year history of this list (not counting one that didn’t even make this list). Nothing against this card – it’s a beauty – but at heart it’s a simple sticker auto on a base card. Just look at the card number. I’m used to autographs having numbers made up of letters, usually with an “A” added. #KGA and #AU1 and such. This is card #204. How do you have an autographed card #204? Anyway, Griffey signed it, so there’s that…

25. 1998 Circa Thunder Rave Reviews #7

If you want insane ‘90’s-style die-cutting and foil work, look no further than this…thing. It was the 1:288 monster of Circa Thunder, and it really looked the part. I know it’s so 2003 to quote Family Guy, but design-wise it reminds me of Peter Griffin’s negative review of The Godfather: “It insists upon itself.” Still, like The Godfather, everyone seems to love this insert, including me.

24. 2006 Flair Showcase Hot Gloves #HG-19 /150

Upper Deck’s version of Fleer’s Hot Gloves insert is unsung but hella-rare and one of the best in the series. There don’t seem to be stated odds anywhere (how do you not state odds in 2006 – you crazy, Upper Deck), but there are known to be only 150 copies of each player. So if you’re a Hot Gloves completionist, which I am, it’s a must-have and among the toughest gets to finish off the timeline.

23. 1995 Pinnacle White Hot

Here is a rare parallel of an insert from way back in 1995. Red Hot was seeded at 1:8 packs with a 25-card checklist (pretty big, obviously). The stated odds of pulling a White Hot version were never stated, but they are most definitely a lot rarer. As the owner of several of the Red Hot cards, including the Griffey, seeing one of these for the first time took me completely by surprise. Like dating a brunette for years then one day she dyes her hair blonde, and in the time it takes for you to get used to it you kind of feel like you’re cheating on her….but it’s still her so it’s OK but also naughty and titillating.

I finally worked “titillating” into a paragraph about baseball cards! This blog has officially gone too far.

22. 2004 Upper Deck Etchings Etched in Time Autograph #ET-KG #/1625

If you are just getting into the Griffey game and you want a cool autograph for not a lot of coin, look no further. There are a whopping 1625 of these floating around, so there is no premium for rarity here. What I’d really like to do is get a box of this stuff as it’s the product into which Upper Deck inserted those amazing A Piece of History 500 Home Run Club cards, the numbered-out-of-25 autographed version of which regularly sells in the several thousands. Pulling one from a box may be the cheapest option for us regular shmoes.

21. Pinnacle/Select Artist’s Proofs

OH MY GOD THESE ARE HARD TO FIND. Seriously. It wouldn’t even be that bad except that Griffey had SO MANY CARDS in both Select and Pinnacle base sets – we’re talking checklists and subsets and EVEN MORE checklists. And some of these checklists feature multiple Hall-of-Famers on one card so you also have to compete with PCers of those guys to get them. Brutal.

There are 475 of each Select Artist’s Proof base card which isn’t very many for this early in the rare parallel game. As for the Pinnacle AP’s, well, I have no idea how many of each there are, but I suspect its even less than those in Select. Anyway, you are looking at SO MUCH MONEY AND TIME in this little group of cards.

Look out for cards 20-11 tomorrow, and thanks for reading!

Introducing the Griffey Generosity Project

On Tuesday I started a project that is now more or less completely out of my hands. Simply put: I mailed a box containing 500 Griffey cards to a fellow Griffey collector along with a note containing instructions. Here’s the box:

The goal here is to help build everyone’s Griffey collection a few cards at a time. The idea is simple: you take what you want out of the box, put in what you don’t need (duplicates and such), and send the box on to another collector. It’s a fun and, apart from the cost of shipping the box, inexpensive way to spread the Griffey love.

I’ve also included a section where folks can write their name, city, the date, and any comments they want as they receive the box and send it out again.

This project depends entirely on the generosity of other Griffey collectors. I honestly have no control over what happens next, and that is kind of exciting. Is it possible that someone could decide they want all the Griffeys and keep the whole thing? I suppose it is, but I don’t think that is going to happen. I like to think my fellow Griffey collectors are going to embrace this thing and use it as a tool to contribute to the card collecting community, find some trading partners, and maybe even make some friends.

500 Griffeys!

The project has a built-in “opt-out” option, too: I’ve included my contact information (on the letter and also taped to the inside of the lid), so as patriarch of the project, anyone who doesn’t want to participate can simply shoot me an e-mail, and I will gladly pay for shipping back to me so I can send it on to the next Griffey collector. My goal is to keep the box going as long as possible.

Then again, the ultimate opt-out would be for them to simply keep the box and call it a day, but I am hopeful that won’t happen. While I didn’t include any specific rules against that, it is totally against the spirit of the project and of being a decent person in general. Most of the cards in the box could be had for less than a buck or so on COMC (or just for the asking from most Griffey collectors), so that would be pretty lame. Plus if it did happen, the last person to mail it would know exactly where they sent it, so it’s not like we wouldn’t know who it was. Then a quick drive over to that dude’s house with a hammer to dispatch them from the gene pool, and we’re back in business.

Try me.

Anyway, this is something I’ve wanted to do for a while, and I finally had some time this week to get it done. I figured if it gave me the chance to clear out some space in my Griffey Overflow Box and help out a bunch of fellow Griffey collectors in the process, it was time well-spent.

Godspeed, little box.

Here's a link to the 18-month update posted 12.14.2018. It's still going!

2006 Fleer Episode 7: The Fleerce Awakens

In 2004 Upper Deck offered to buy the Fleer company for 25 million dollars. Fleer, who had been in financial trouble in the years leading up to the offer, thought their business was on the verge of a major upswing and rejected the offer. Only a year later in 2005 Fleer ceased trading card operations and began liquidating assets to pay back their creditors. It was then that Upper Deck swooped in and bought the Fleer brand…for a mere $6 million.

The following year Upper Deck did the Fleer brand justice with three all new Fleer sets; and I’m happy to report that they did a reasonably good job at it. There are hints of Upper Deck influence in the card designs, but you can also see the effort that went into keeping them as true to their Fleer pedigree as possible.

First they did something maybe Fleer should have done years before: simplify. They stripped away all the spinoffs and ran with the three core Fleer sets: flagship, Tradition, and Ultra. I have to wonder if maybe Fleer had done this they would have been able to weather the great cardboard slowdown of the 2000’s.

Next, it appears to me they also tried to streamline the Fleer aesthetic to that of a modernized vintage brand. Across all three Fleer brands we see a lot of bold, full-bleed, colorful cards with very little foil compared with previous issues. This direction made sense for Upper Deck, too, as Fleer was now their connection to the past having made cards in one way or another since the ‘60’s and continuously since 1981.

The acquisition of Fleer by Upper Deck is something I would have been skeptical about were I actively collecting in 2006, but looking back now I consider it to have been a good thing, while it lasted. A few years back when I heard that Disney bought the Star Wars franchise I was pessimistic to say the least, but having seen Episode 7, I feel a lot better about it now. That’s what 2006 Fleer is to me: proof that maybe Upper Deck would do this right.

2006 Fleer #316

The base cards are simple in a way comparable with the Fleer base designs of the early ‘90’s (wait...let me finish the sentence before passing judgment) but cleaner with more team-appropriate coloring (see? Not that bad). Upper Deck kept the great old crown logo that Fleer had already resurrected in recent sets. Also they refrained from including their own logo anywhere on the card backs, so the only way you could know these were Upper Deck cards was from the micro-printed legalese.

Speaking of the backs, if any part of this card is meant to say “throwback set,” it’s this part. Simple, clean, no photos, and a small blurb – it’s like an 80’s card back slightly modernized.

2006 Fleer Lumber Company #LC-16

Fleer made the Lumber Company insert for over a decade, and in that time they had their highs and lows as could be expected. When Upper Deck got a hold of it they were strong right out of the gate. Look at this wood-grain on this puppy! The cool insert logo, the tasteful foil – this is one of the better-looking Lumber Company designs in the whole timeline.

2006 Fleer Team Leaders #TL-7 (w/ Aaron Harang)

There’s not a whole lot to this card – it’s the same offensive/defensive leaders pairing by team we’ve seen many times before. It’s well-executed for what it is and probably the most valuable Aaron Harang base card available. On a side note, did every card in 2006 mention Junior’s Comeback Player of the Year honors? Because we are three-for-three at this point. Damn.

2006 Fleer Top 40 #T40-1

The Top 40 players in baseball according to Upper D….er, I mean Fleer. And Griffey got #1! Yeah! Take that, Harang.

I’m not 100% sure whether they gave Griffey card #1 because he was the best. Albert Pujols put up better numbers in 2005 pretty much across the board. My guess is they did it, at least in part, because everyone was still reeling from the steroid scandal and Griffey was a popular, All-American, non-implicated face to head up the set with. Or maybe I’m reading too much into it altogether.

Four-for-four on the comeback player thingy, btw.

2006 Fleer Autographics Autograph #FL-KG

Now we’re talking! This card is a bit historical in that it is the first officially-released Junior autograph on a Fleer card. Fleer Griffey autos had been sold before in the form of aftermarket releases from companies like Scoreboard who sold their wares in places like HSN and QVC, but this one is a legit release and one of the better things to come out of Upper Deck’s acquisition of Fleer (UD had an exclusivity deal with Griffey when it came to his autograph on cards). This is one of the short-printed cards from the Autographics insert limited to 150 copies.

The only drawback here is that the card fails to mention Griffey’s NL Comeback Player of the Year Honors. Scandalous! So, I grabbed a sharpie and fixed it:

So much better.

Here are the cards I still need from 2006 Fleer:
#316 Glossy Silver
#316 Glossy Gold
Fabrics Jersey Relic #KG

That glossy insert is not easy to come across but it shouldn’t be terribly expensive when I finally find it. The jersey relic is on eBay right now for $15.00 but that’s just a little more than I’d like to spend on it. Unfortunately the photos on that auction fail to show the card back, so I have no way of knowing whether Griffey’s NL Comeback Player of the Year honors get a mention. If not, well, that’s why God made sharpies, isn’t it?

The Great Griffey Frankenset: Page 18

Welcome to Page 18 of the Great Griffey Frankenset!

If you're not familiar with the idea of a frankenset, it is a customized set of cards properly sequenced by card number that all tie into a connecting theme. Some frankenset themes include whole teams, mini-collections, and even just generally great cards or photos. This is the first frankenset I'm aware of that is made up of just one player: Ken Griffey, Jr., the man of a million cards. I took the liberty of including things like inserts, parallels, cameos, and oddballs for the sake of variety and because it's just more fun that way. Enjoy!

Here is page 18 of the Great Griffey Frankenset:

Completeness of page: 9/9

Completeness of the Frankenset so far: 99% (161/162)

Team distribution so far: Mariners: 112/161 (70%), Reds: 44/161 (27%), White Sox: 2/161 (1%), No team indicated: 2/161 (1%)

Approximate retail value of this page: $39.00 ($3090.25 running total)

Page 18 Notes: Unfortunately this is the first Frankenset Friday you've seen from me since March. I have the whole checklist planned out well into the hundreds - I just don't have the time to put the actual posts together. Despite that, I had some free time tonight, so here is Page 18 only six months late! With this one we are doubling up the quantity of White Sox Griffeys in the set which means they now have the same number of Griffey cards in this set as cards with no team indicated. The pride is back!

Page 18:

154. 2006 Fleer Tradition #154

This is one of my favorite faux-throwback designs from Fleer Tradition. I love the use of the cap instead of the team logo.

155. 2014 Panini Prizm #155 Camo

Regardless of how you feel about Panini Prizm, the camo refractor is pretty cool and seems popular among collectors. Just don't drop it in the jungle.

156. 1990 Upper Deck #156

This one is all about the picture. It's also the card I think about when I think about why they call him The Kid.

157. 2000 Upper Deck MVP #157 Silver Script

I call these "surprise parallel," because it's not so obvious in a stack of cards as, say, a refractive camo pattern. I just remember noticing one day that this one had a signature on it and the others didn't. Boom: surprise parallel.

158. 2003 Victory #158 Laying it on the Line

A game card from the last year of Victory. This is not the best Victory card in this Frankenset, or even the best one on this page.

159. 2000 Victory #159

This is. They also made Junior a special card to celebrate his trade to the Reds and tacked it onto the end of the base set this year, but this shot of backwards-hatted Griffey at the Home Run Derby is just awesome.

160. 2009 Topps Heritage Chrome High Number Series #CHR160 #/1960

My favorite player on one of my favorite vintage designs with a big ol' smile done up in mirror-like chrome. I'm pretty psyched Junior got a card in this set with this high a number.

161. 2008 Upper Deck Timeline #161 1994 UD All-Time Heroes

There it is! A White Sox card! Only the second one in the Frankenset. Savor the flavor, guys, because there aren't many of these coming...

162. 2002 Upper Deck UD Authentics #162 (1989 design)

Finally, while I'd like to have seen an updated portrait instead of a run-of-the-mill action shot, I still love a throwback design from Upper Deck. Maybe we'll get more someday.

Here's the back of page 18:

Thanks for reading, and look for page 19 coming...ugh, Lord knows when.